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Editor's Report

Extended oil change intervals and oil life monitoring systems have become the norm on today’s new cars. If handled appropriately, they do not have to represent a threat to your business.

In recent years most automakers have been extending their recommended oil change intervals and/or building their cars with oil life monitoring systems. This has the potential to affect the maintenance patterns your customers apply to their vehicles.

Theories as to the reason for the carmakers’ actions abound. Some contend it’s nothing more than a marketing ploy: Car companies want to gain a competitive advantage by telling potential customers their brand rarely needs maintenance and is therefore cheaper to operate. Others maintain it’s one more attack on the independent aftermarket: The more you complicate things, the more likely someone is to return to the dealer for service. Still others might contend it signals the car companies’ eagerness to please the environmentalists: Fewer oil changes is good for the planet.

While there may be some element of validity to each of these theories, I don’t believe any of them play a major role. After all, how many people are going to choose car A over car B because car A can go longer between oil changes? And what automaker is going to jeopardize its reputation by recommending oil change patterns that will risk engine damage?

According to a recent article in Automotive News, more than one-third of the 38 brands sold in the U.S. use on-board software to determine when oil needs to be changed, and, overall, 7500-mile intervals have become the norm.

The three vehicles in my household are pretty representative of the variety of systems and recommendations that exist today. The oil change recommendation on one of them is the stalwart 3000 miles/3 months for severe service, 6000 miles/6 months for normal service. The second vehicle has an indicator that displays the percentage of oil life remaining (based on a simple 6000-mile/6-month clock); however, the factory recommends 3000-mile/3-month changes if the vehicle is operated under severe conditions. The third vehicle also has an oil change indicator, only it doesn’t display percentage of life remaining. It’s based on a 7500-mile/12-month/750-hour clock, and there are no separate recommendations for severe service.

Here are a few suggestions on how to create a win-win situation for you and your customers:

•Determine an appropriate recommended maintenance schedule for each customer. Base it on a review of the factory recommendations for each vehicle and an interview with the driv-er. A person driving a car with a 12,000-mile factory recommendation is probably not going to embrace a one-size-fits-all 3000-mile recommendation. In this example, however, it’s perfectly reasonable to recommend a biannual maintenance schedule that consists of a complete vehicle inspection.

•Help your customers understand their reminder lights. You can recommend a maintenance routine that’s not based on the maintenance lights without challenging the validity of the factory system. Take the second vehicle in my garage, for example (the one with the 6000-mile clock on the light). According to my owner’s manual, the recommendation becomes 3000 miles for operation in severe conditions (something which, it could reasonably be argued, applies to nearly all vehicles). So in this case, the factory recommendation is actually when the oil life monitoring system reaches 50%!

Remember, too, that some systems don’t display the percentage of oil life remaining, making it possible for the light to come on 10 miles into a 1500-mile trip. This is yet another reason why it’s in your customers’ best interest to be on a regular schedule.

•Be prepared to douse the lights. Make sure you have the information on hand to reset the service reminder lights. If you need to invest in a reset tool to cover a few oddball vehicles, do it; otherwise, don’t work on those vehicles.

Oil monitoring systems don’t relieve an owner of responsibility for monitoring his vehicle’s maintenance requirements. The vehicle service business is still about establishing relationships and trust. Sorting out the confusion surrounding oil change intervals can help you do just that.